Paulo and Coelho: Movie Review

If Paulo Coelho were on wordpress reading this post, he would be tremendously happy to know that somewhere on the other side of the world someone has used a famous line of his to create a movie — Kochuvva Paulo Ayyappa Coelho — that is as sweet as it is inspiring.

“When you really want something, the whole Universe conspires in helping you achieve it,” says Coelho in The Alchemist, a book that protagonist Kochuvva has read and understood despite not being too wordly wise or aware of what lies beyond his native village in Kerala, a south Indian state.

Kochuvva’s firm belief in Coelho pushes him to help Ayyappa, a child whose biggest dream is to sit on an airplane. Destiny brings chicken pox and his father’s death home on the two occasions that Ayyappa prepares to travel. Disappointed and heartbroken, Ayyappa overhears Kochuvva talk about how swimming could help the village kids get through to international competitions — meaning plane travel. The story then meanders through Ayyappa’s determined plunge into the world of swimming and Kochuvva’s faith in him.

As they face financial and social difficulties in getting a rural child compete with city-bred kids so as to win a place for a training camp at Diego Garcia, Kochuvva and Ayyappa cling to the only shred of hope they hold — Paulo Coelho’s line from The Alchemist. Boban Kunchakko is brilliant as Kochuvva while Master Rudraksh excels in portraying a young child who never stops dreaming.

Writted and directed by Sidharth Siva, Kochuvva Paulo Ayyappa Coelho was released in Kerala in 2016. It is available online (in Malayalam, with subtitles).